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Committee okays wider eligibility window for dry pea and lentil council seats
Summary
House Bill 1103, which would change the definition of "producer" for the dry pea and lentil council and relax the requirement that council candidates must have grown pulses in the immediate preceding season, received a committee Do Pass recommendation after testimony from the council and sponsor.
The House Agriculture Committee recommended Do Pass on House Bill 1103, which revises the statutory definition and eligibility language that governs elections to the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council.
Sponsor Representative Mike Vellst said the bill is intended to increase flexibility for candidates by eliminating a requirement that someone must have planted dry peas or lentils in the immediate preceding growing season to be eligible for council office. The proposal would instead allow a producer who has planted a pulse crop within a six-year period to qualify for council elections.
Kim Suresczyk, chairman of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council and a producer from McClusky, told the committee the change is needed because pulses occupy a small share of planted acres, are concentrated geographically and are often placed in long rotations to manage disease pressures. "Pulses are very vulnerable to molds... Michael [Welch] is pushing six to seven years on crop rotations," Suresczyk said, describing why some producers may not plant pulses every year or two and therefore would become ineligible for council service under the current language.
Committee members asked whether changing the statutory definition of "producer" could affect other parts of the chapter, including refund and assessment rules. Witnesses and committee staff discussed that the change applies to the chapter's definitions but that election eligibility remains a separate requirement; committee members asked Legislative Counsel to confirm appropriate drafting before any final floor action.
Committee members also discussed a proposed amendment that would change an "or" to an "and" in the draft language; the committee decided not to adopt that amendment and left the statute using "or." The bill passed the committee by roll call with one recorded no vote.
Proponents said the council has trouble filling some county seats and that allowing a six-year eligibility window will make it easier to attract representative producers from the areas where pulses are grown.
